Health care embraces educational outreach

Dr. James Jerzak and Carol Philippe, left, fourth-year medical student from UW-Madison, share a smile with a patient during a general physical exam at Bellin Health in Ashwaubenon.(Photo: Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette Media)Buy Photo

The best way to explore careers in health care is through volunteering and job shadowing, according to officials tasked with engaging the next generation of doctors, nurses, technicians and specialists.

Bellin Health Physician Education Coordinator Morgan Rabatine Nagel said health care spans such a wide range of specialties and responsibilities that seeing the professionals in action is essential.

"These programs are pipelines for us. We track the students who come in and where they go afterward," Rabatine Nagel said. "I think we're starting to see them come back. We have a lot of repeat students who complete multiple shadowing rotations with us and once they graduate, they could come back and be hired."

Rabatine Nagel joined Bellin Health in 2010 and was tasked with expanding the organization's medical education programs. She said medical education programs help students gain the experience and understanding necessary for careers in health care and help recruit young talent.

"Because we have nurse practitioners and (registered nurses) RNs doing rotations in our organizations, we can keep them in the system," she said. "Our education program is part of our recruitment tool. It's nice because candidates get exposed to our system and in the long run it saves us time, them time and us recruiting dollars."

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At left, Carol Philippe, fourth-year medical student from UW-Madison, works with a patient during a general physical exam at Bellin Health in Ashwaubenon.(Photo: Evan Siegle/Press-Gazette Media)

On a regional level, the Northeastern Wisconsin Area Health Education Center provides general resources to help interested students explore the careers available and prepare themselves for the demands and expectations that come with jobs in a vital industry that prizes scientific knowledge and people skills equally.

Warpinski said the club averages five to 10 students each year who are interested in health care careers. Together, the group talks about health care and medical issues, meets with industry professionals and talks about current events in the industry.

"Hopefully, by introducing students at an earlier point in their lives, we can help them … and expose them to the huge range of options in the health care field," Warpinski said. "We find students coming who think they're going to go into one field, but end up in a different one. But a lot of our discussions focus on the values we want our health care providers to have."

As important as science and math are to prospective health care professionals, Warpinski said a second language can be vital, too. He said the Notre Dame Academy club as a pilot program that could be expanded into other schools in the Greater Green Bay Area with further support.

"The ideas is to get students to see health care through the eyes of the patient, to understand cultural differences, to get them to work on communication skills," Warpinski said.

— jbollier@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @GBstreetwise.